On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:00:31 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:03:54 -0700, jJim McLaughlin
wrote:

Price will come down. Its a waiting and balancing game: How badly do you
want digital and / or HD RIGHT NOW vs. current price and how long are you
willing to go without digital and / or HD to get a lower price.

Remember what analog VHS VCRs cost when they first came out in
the (?) 70s - 80s?

Actually the first VCRs were not VHS, they were Beta and it was about
2 grand for a Sony SL7200 that gave you one hour. I bought one in 75

My real question is whether "cable" is even going to be the 21st
century way to get your shows. I still believe producers are going to
figure out they can distribute their product on the internet and cut
the "network" out completely. Cable companies will mostly just be
selling bandwidth and competing with the Telcos and maybe even the
power company.

I notice that more and more of what I watch comes over the internet,
rather than conventional channels. Of course, not everybody has
broadband internet.

I'm sure there will still be a market for some "time slot" oriented
programming but that is really obsolete thinking in a digital age.
I bet DVR technology will be built into the next generation of TVs
along with an ethernet port.
I bought a $2k Beta machine and I had a $200 digital watch and a $100
calculator.

My parents had Beta because of the better sound quality (beta hifi).
It wasn't easy trying to sell that beta VCR and about 400 tapes in
2000.

I am smarter now and I am going to let this business shake out before
I jump in. If I have to I will rent a couple cable boxes for a while.


This does seem to be one of those situations where renting makes
sense.

BTW as for analog on cable, so far I have heard New York and Chicago
are cutting back to virtually nothing analog so I bet it is the wave
of the future.

Probably, although it could be 10 years or more for some systems.
--
69 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"God was invented by man for a reason, that
reason is no longer applicable."